In the last All-Star Game of Michael Jordan (while playing in
Chicago), East won their third consecutive game, being MJ the MVP and the best scorer. Besides, Jordan became historic leader in steals. The new generation had arrived with
Kobe Bryant, who in his first All-Star Game challenged Jordan
with no success, but he still did a good job for the West. Kobe was one
of the four Lakers
teammates who played on this edition, and besides he became in the
youngest player to play (and
start!) in the All-Star Game. East based their victory in the first and the last quarter (33-25 and 34-23).

Jeff Hornacek won with a minimum effort.
In the second position, Hubert Davis made two impressive marks: 24 points in the semifinal (best
score tied with Craig Hodges) and 10 points in the final, all time worst in the
final round.
The Slam Dunk Contest was removed from this
edition.

East won their third consecutive game since the beginning of the East-West duel in
1996. West began well the game (8-19), thanks to
Bobby Jackson. At halftime, they only won by four (38-42). In the second half, appeared
Van Horn, Billups and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who became the
first international player
chosen as a MVP. The name of the Lithuanian Cavs center
started to be recognized since that All-Star. West missed Tim Duncan, who probably had been the star of the game, but Tim was selected to play with the best in the All-Star Game.

The 2Ball replaced the Slam Dunk Contest in Saturday
festivities. Eight teams participated, representing every WNBA franchise. Each team had a man and a woman, who played in the same city. Players must shoot from one of seven locations marked on the floor. Each location is worth a different point value (2-8) based on its distance from the floor. The 10 bonus is given to the team that scores from each of the seven shooting spots, and the 10 points violations happens when any team finishes their 60 seconds without shoot from each position.

The teams were Phoenix, Cleveland, Houston, Utah, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Sacramento and New York. There were 2 rounds. In the first, each team had 60 seconds to get the best score. Two best teams
went to the final. In the first round seven teams were very close (40-54 points), and the worst was Los Angeles (the big disappointment) with 27 points. Houston defeated Utah in the final 73-61. Houston duo made 12-16.
Clyde Drexler was almost perfect 7-8, after missing his first shoot (an eight points attempt) he hit his last seven attempts (6-4-5-6-7-8-6) to score 42 points.
Cynthia Cooper, who had been WNBA MVP, made 5-8 (7-2-2-3-7) to score 21 points. Utah used a different strategy.
Karl Malone attempted the long 8 points bombs while Tammi Reiss shot from the rest of the circles. They finished with 61 points. Both teams got the 10 points bonus. Phoenix was the best team in the first round, but they missed the final because of the 10 points violation.